Nifty Trick for Getting Stuck Ring Off of Finger

My wedding rings were stuck on my finger this morning. I called my sis, who used to work in a jewelry store, if she had any tricks for getting them off. She said to spray Windex on my finger, which causes constriction. Yep, sure enough, with Windex and a little bit of cooking oil and lots of twisting, it came off! Neat trick. Hope that helps someone in the future!

Frugal Challenge for May - No Late Fees!

Last week, I paid an enormous amount for late fees at the library and movie store. At the library, I had to pay $9.60 for a lost book (that we found today on my DS's dresser when he finally cleaned his room!) plus $20 in late fees. I went back to the library a few days later, and was told I had another $20 in late fees. I triumphantly pulled out my receipt (thank You, God, for letting me find it!) and said that I had already paid it. She said, no, it was for other fees. I was and am still not convinced that it's not for the same thing. But assuming it isn't - that is $40 late fees on one library card, plus $9.60 for the lost book (which wasn't lost at all). I always have late fees at the movie store. I would guesstimate that I spend AT LEAST $20 a month in late fees at the library and movie store. Of course, this month is way over that amount.

So I am going to challenge myself for the month of May to not have ANY late fees, anywhere!! Can I do it? I don't know. Here are a few things I'm going to try this month to help me achieve my goal:

* Put all library books/library movies in one place.
* Write down somewhere when all library items and movies are due.
* Before I leave the house, check my list to see if any items are due that day to avoid another trip to town!

Late fees are not frugal!! I have got to get this under control!

Frugal Finds - 4/26

I only got to go to a few yard sales today, in between soccer games and the homeschool curriculum sale at Lifeway. But I did manage to get a few goodies. I got these items:

* Several VHS movies: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, The Emporer's New Groove, a Thomas the Train movie, a Veggie Tale movie, and a Tom and Jerry movie - all for $2.30

* 3 books - Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2005, a Max Lucado hardback, and a glycemic index diet book - all for $4

* A 2-disc CDROM of Christian Clip Art - no scratches, looked brand new but I couldn't tell what Windows it uses. Hopefully it will work. Cost: $1

Lifeway was having 20% off all homeschool curriculum/books with no tax today! I bought "The Challenge of Raising Cain", a discipline approach book, and "Lessons in Responsibility for Boys". I'm making a list to see if I want to go back and order some more things.

A very good frugal day! If only I didn't have to spend so much in gas to go and get my frugal finds!!

What People Eat Around the World

Take a look at this Time photo essay: What People Eat Around the World.

It shows pictures of 16 families around the world, with the food that feeds their family for a week. It also tells how much it costs in their money, plus what that equals in U.S. dollars. The cheapest was $1.23 in a country called Chad. It made me feel like crying, to see what they had to feed their children. A couple of sacks of some kind of grain or lentils. And just a handful of veggies/fruit. Very sad. Then you see two pictures of United States families. Wow. They had tons of boxes...boxes...boxes, and more boxes. Very little veggies or fruit or even meat. Just lots of processed foods. It even surprised me to see how much processed food I saw in Japan's picture. This is a real eye-opener. As I ws thinking of what my family's picture would look like, I was thinking how little "real" food would be in that picture - like cuts of meat, vegetables, or fruit. Most of it would be processed food.

Take a look and tell me what you think.

Free BioSpot for Dogs and Cats

Thanks to Crystal Paine from Money Saving Mom for this tip!

Take a very short survey for a free 3-month supply of BioSpot for prevention of fleas for cats and dogs!

Publix Coupon Savings 4/22/08

I went to Publix last night to use my coupons. Unfortunately, I couldn't go home right after, so I couldn't get any frozen or refrigerated items. :( I really wanted the Land of Lakes butter for .22 after coupons. BUT I did the these things:

* 4 boxes of Kashi cereal - These were originally $3.39 and B1G1free. Then I had $1 off coupons for each, from the "Go Organic" little mag at the front of the store. They had tons of them. So I got these for .70 cents each. I think that is a little under 80% savings.

* Hunts Ketchup 24 oz. - B1G1free - I didn't have any coupons, but I really needed ketchup. I can't remember the price, at the moment, but I'm thinking maybe around .80 each. I will check and put in correct price later.

* Scott's Extra Soft Toilet Paper - mega roll 12 pack - on sale for $6.99 (originally $9.xx) - I had $1 off coupons for each - I bought 3. Now, this is NOT the lowest I can get Scott's Extra Soft. The BEST deal is when the 4-packs are on sale for 2/$5, and then use the $1 off coupon for each pack. But this doesn't happen often. And it seems like when we run out of toilet paper is when it is NEVER on sale. And I HATE paying full price for Scott's toilet paper. This is the only kind we use because of our septic system. And it's actually soft, and I think it lasts a long time! :) Final price: $5.99 each 12-pack

I think that's it. I didn't think it was worth taking a picture this time. Like I said, there were lots of other deals at Publix, but I was in a hurry, trying to shop during my DS's soccer practice, and wasn't going straight home after. So I missed some deals.

3 Random Things about Myself

Okay, I've been tagged by My Crazy Debt. Here are 3 Random Things about Myself that you may (or may not) be interested to know....


1) I'm gifted. Yep, in the 3rd grade, I took an IQ test and was certified gifted. Woo hoo.


2) Third grade was a booming year for me. That's the year I first got my glasses.


3) Fourth grade is when a boy told me he was going to punch me in the face and break said

glasses.


There...now you know. Don't you feel better knowing this about me? :)


Now I'm going to tag some other people. Please come back and tell me if you did this meme!!


* Life in the Button Factory

* Frugal Finds

* Family Focused Fun

* Saving Money and Being Happy

Wow, look at this pantry!

Okay, two posts in one day! I'm on a roll.

Take a look at this pantry. Oh my gosh. I have never seen a pantry so organized! She is amazing! She says that when she was little, her dad gave her the responsibility of keeping their pantry organized. He told her to make it look like the supermarket shelves. And it's stuck with her. I wrote her a compliment, telling her how wonderful it looked, and how I wish my mom or dad had given me that responsibility when I was a kid!! In our house, the pantry was a deep dark spot of unknown dangers. When you got something out, you learned to cover your head in case a can of corn fell on you. And you always did a shuffle backwards when you made the grab, in case another can of something fell on your toes (had that happen way too many times!). And when you had to put said item back into the pantry, you just closed your eyes and chucked it, and dove out of the way in case it flew back out at ya. I'm not joking,

Bubble In My Head, you are a woman of talent. (sigh) You are my hero.

Frugal finds......and not-so-frugal finds

Sorry I've been MIA for a while....You'll see why in a sec.

I wanted to post some frugal finds...

1) This is the reason I've been gone for so long from blogging....we got a new puppy!! She is a yellow Lab, and she was FREE!! Yes, you heard me right. A family member let us have one for free. She is 7 weeks old, and so roly-poly and squishy and soft, that you can't help but hug her! I will post pics as soon as I upload my pics from my camera. We named her Honey, because of her coloring (honey- colored). After we named her, I thought of another reason that "Honey" was a good name - my DH raises bees!! Anyway, Honey has kept us busy, busy, busy.

2) I went to Publix last night, and saved quite a bit of money. I am going to do another post just on that, but I wanted to alert you to a deal that will expire TODAY - so go and take advantage while you can.

The Kid Cuisine frozen dinners are B1G1 Free. Here, they are $1.89 each, so that makes them .95 cents each with the sale. At that, they are a good price, because I have never seen them that cheap before. My kids love them, but don't get them a lot because they are so expensive. Well, Publix has a blinkie right in front of them for a coupon for .75/2. That makes them about .58 cents each!! I got a bunch, just to have for a treat occasionally, or to have when we are needing to eat quick to go to soccer practice or when I am out of lunch meat/bread. Oh, BTW, Kroger also has these blinkies in the frozen food section! So if your Publix doesn't, then run to Kroger and grab a few!

I also bought a not-so-frugal product....

I used a Dillards gift card that I got for Christmas to buy me some foundation make-up. I have been using Lancome Teint Idole for a while now, and I love it for my oily skin. It really stays on well, and doesn't turn orange when I sweat (if you have oily skin, then you know what I'm talking about here!). Lancome was having one of those deals where you get a free gift with purchase. I was totally out of foundation and was using some L'Oreal I had that made my face look like an oil slick after a couple of hours of putting it on. I told the sales lady what I wanted, and paid for my make-up with the gift card. When she told me how much I had left on the GC, I felt absolutely sick over what I had just paid for make-up! I had paid, with tax, about $42!!!! That is SO not frugal!!

So what do you think? Do you think it's okay to splurge on an item you really love when you try to be frugal on everything else? I have really tried to find over-the-counter foundation that works as well as Lancome (L'Oreal and Lancome are made by the same company, and L'Oreal is supposed to be comparable to Lancome, but in my opinion, the foundation is NOT) but I just can't find anything. I guess I could shop around and find a cheaper foundation like from Clinique or something. But if I don't like it, wouldn't that be wasteful?

Whaddya think?

What the heck is going on, American Idol?

Why, oh why, did Michael Johns get voted off of American Idol? He was my fave. Crap. I cannot believe it. :(
(slinking off to pout now)

Quickie Publix Coupon Savings!

I ran to Publix tonight to use some coupons I had. I am going to take a picture later, but I wanted to hurry and post these deals so that you could take advantage of them tomorrow before the sale ends (New weekly ad comes out on Wednesday!).

Here is just what I got with coupons:

(2) Maxwell House Coffee packs - B1G1 Free - (2) $1.00 off coupons
(6) Totino's Pizza Rolls - 15 ct. - 50% off - (6) .40 cent coupons doubled
(2) Secret Platinum deodorant - clearanced for $1.49 - (2) .50 coupons doubled
(1) Publix loaf of bread - .01 cent item (Penny item) - coupon from paper

Original Price Total: $26.21
Sale Price Total: $13.70
What I Paid: $3.72

Wow! That's a savings of...what? almost 90%? Yay!

Crazy Coupon Savings at Kroger - 4/01/08

Here it is!!

Here is my Kroger stash from earlier this week that I was talking about. I will show you how I did it. Kroger was offering a deal this week on certain items that if you bought 10, you got $5 off your total. The prices were $1, $1.50, $2, and $2.50. So if you bought 10 $1 items, you got $5 off, so your total for 10 items would be $5, making them .50 cents each. You get the picture.

In this shopping trip, I did 3 reward transactions - meaning, I bought 30 items, and got $15 off the total. My total for all of the above 31 items was $9.00!!!!! Original sale price of all of this was $57.50. I have no idea what the original prices are. If I knew that, the savings would be even more!! Here is what I did:

Reward #1

10 Betty Crocker cookie mix pouches at $1.50 each - w/ .50 cents coupon doubled on each

$1.50 X 10 = $15.00

- $10 coupons = $5

- $5 Reward = $0

Reward #2

5 Ziploc bags @ $2.50 each = $12.50

3 Special K bars @ $2.50 each = $7.50

2 Exedrin Trial Size @ $1.00 each = $2.00

5 (.40) coupons doubled (Ziploc) - $4.00

3 (.50) coupons doubled (Special K) - $3.00

2 ( 2.00) coupons (Exedrin) - $ 4.00

Reward - $5.00

__________________________________________

Total $6.50

Reward #3

4 Betty Crocker muffin mix @ $2.00 each = $8.00

1 Ultra Dawn @ $2.50 = $2.50

2 Betty Crocker cookie mix pouches = $4.50

3 Exedrin Trial Size @ $1.00 = $3.00

4 (.50) coupons doubled (muffin) - $2.00

1 (.50) coupon doubled (Dawn) - $1.00

2 (.50) coupons doubled (cookie) - $2.00

3 (2.00) coupons (Exedrin) - $6.00

Reward - $5.00

__________________________________________

Total $2.00

** Also, I bought the Kotex which was on sale for $2.50, and I had a $2.00 off coupon, which made it .50 cents!

No Internet

I am so sorry, everyone! My internet/DSL is not working! DH and I have been on the phone with them off and on all day, and still nothing. I don't know when I will be able to post pics of my haul from Kroger. Hopefully in a couple of days! I am at my sister's now. Maybe I can bring my receipt later and type out how I did it, and then post a pic later.

(sigh) I think I would rather be without a TV than the internet.